Hollow Man Offering Nothing To No One

Before children speak, they make things as a way of exploring. I just kept making things when other kids lost interest and I never lost that desire.   Tom Friedman

Tom Friedman’s sculpture is a hollow figure standing with his empty face turned to a white wall and offering, as the title implies, nothing to no one. The work makes reference to an oriental philosophy that associates emptiness with the infinite, while illustrating the crux of the artistic process: that everything possesses infinite potential. His choice of material here is of the utmost importance. Aluminum is an abundant metal that we use every day. Such a commonplace, apparently insignificant object as a disposable baking tray is transformed in Tom Friedman’s hands into a sculpture that calls to mind the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz.

Tom Friedman is a conceptual artist who, since his breakthrough at the end of the 1990s, has created astonishing works from mundane objects such as toothpicks, toilet paper, hair and sugar cubes.

Liv Stoltz, former Curator Program and Education, September 2012